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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Dangers of Passivity for the Christian

For the Christian nothing can be more devastating than to be deceived by the devil.
Sadly many Christians are every day and this is ongoing and their lives and families are being destroyed.
These Christians may really want to be serving God and Jesus and are very anti the devil and all his works.
One of the most gifted Christian writers with much insight in this sad business was Jesse Penn-Lewis.
You can google her on the internet.
He most famous and important work was and is "War on the Saints".
Many Christians over the years have dismissed her views and indeed for a while were translating her book without parts they disagreed with.
You can download the whole unabridged work from the internet.
I have included just a little bit below from the book on the dangers of passivity for the Christian.
This is not saying that people so deceived are not Christians but of course being set free from such deception can be prove to be a very liberating experience.
if you are not a Christian and reading this you would benefit from reading some basic tenets of the Gospel found in other places on this blog.eg there is a whole scanned booklet on Heaven and how to get there.

FROM WAR ON THE SAINTS BY JESSIE PENN-LEWIS

PASSIVITY OF THE WILL

There is a passivity of the will;
the "will" being the helm, so to speak, of the ship. This originates
from a wrong conception of what full surrender to God means. Thinking
that a "surrendered will" to God means no use of the will at all, the
believer ceases to (1) choose, (2) determine, and (3) act of his own
volition. The serious effect of this, he is not allowed by the powers
of darkness to discover, for at first the consequences are trivial, and
scarcely noticeable. In fact, at first it appears to be most glorifying
to God. The "strong-willed" person suddenly becomes passively yielding.
He thinks that God is "will"-ing for him in circumstances, and through
people, and so he becomes passively helpless in action. After a time no
"choice" can be got from him in matters of daily life; no "decision,"
or initiative in matters demanding action; he is afraid to express a
wish, much less a decision. Others must choose, act, lead, decide,
while this one drifts as a cork upon the waters. Later on the powers of
darkness begin to make capital out of this "surrendered" believer, and
to work around him evil of various kinds, which entangle him through
his passivity of will. He has now no power of will to protest, or
resist. Obvious wrong in his environment, which this believer alone has
a right to deal with, flourishes, and grows strong and blatant. The
powers of darkness have slowly gained, both personally and in
circumstances, upon the ground of passivity of the will, which at first
was merely passive submission to environment, under the idea that God
was "will"-ing for him in all things around him.
The
text that such believers misinterpret is Phil. 2: 13, "It is God which
worketh in you, both to will, and to work, for His good pleasure." The
"passive" person reads it, ". . . God which worketh in me the willing,
and the doing," i.e., "willeth instead
of me."note 2 The first means God working in the soul up to the point of the action of the
will, and the second assumes His actually "will"-ing instead of, and "working" instead of the believer. This wrong
interpretation gives ground for not using the will, because of the conclusion "God wills instead of me"; thus bringing about
passivity of will.

GOD DOES NOT WILL INSTEAD OF MAN

The truth to be emphasized is that God never "wills" instead of man, and whatever a man does, he is himself responsible for
his actions.

The
believer whose "will" has become passive, finds, after a time, the
greatest difficulty in making decisions of any kind, and he looks
outside, and all around him for something to help him to decide the
smallest matters. When he has become conscious of his passive
condition, he has a painful sense of being unable to meet some of the
situations of ordinary life. If spoken to, he knows he cannot will to
listen till a sentence is completed; if asked to judge a matter, he
knows he cannot do it; if he is required to "remember" or use his
imagination, he knows he is unable to, and becomes terrified at any
proposed course of action where these demands may come upon him. The
tactics of the enemy now may be to drive him into situations where
these demands may be made, and thus torture or embarrass him before
others.

Little does the believer know that in this condition be may, unknowingly, rely upon the assistance
of evil spirits, who have brought about the passivity for this very
object. The faculty unused lies dormant and dead in their grip, but if
used it is an occasion for them to manifest themselves through it. They
are too ready to "will" instead of the man, and they will put within
his reach many "supernatural" props to help him in "decision,"
especially in the way of "texts" used apart from their context, and
supernaturally given, which the believer, seeking so longingly to do
the will of God, seizes upon, and firmly grasps as a drowning man a
rope, blinded, by the apparently given Divine help, to the principle
that Godnote 3 only
works through the active volition of a man, and not for him in matters requiring his action.

PASSIVITY OF THE MIND

Passivity of the mind
is engendered by a wrong conception of the place of the mind in the
life of surrender to God, and obedience to Him in the Holy Spirit.
Christ's call of fishermen is used as an excuse for passivity of brain,
for some believers say, God has no need for the use of the brain, and
can do without it! But the choice of Paul who had the greatest
intellect of his age, shows that when God sought for a man through whom
He could lay the foundations of the Church, He chose one with a mind
capable of vast and intelligent thinking. The greater the brain power,
the greater the use God can make of it, provided it is submissive to
truth. The cause of passivity of mind, sometimes lies in the thought
that the working of the brain is a hindrance to the development of the
Divine life in the believer. But the truth is, that (1) the non-working
of the brain hinders, (2) the evil working of the brain hinders, (3)
but the normal and pure working of the brain is essential, and helpful
for co-operation with God. This is dealt with fully in Chapter 6, where
the various tactics of the powers of darkness are shown in their
efforts to get the mind into a condition of passivity, and hence
incapable of action to discern their wiles. The effects of passivity of
the mind may be seen in inactivity, when there should be action; or
else over activity beyond control, as if a suddenly released instrument
broke forth into ungovernable action; hesitation, or rashness;
indecision (as also from a passive will); unwatchfulness; lack of
concentration; lack of judgment; bad memory.
Passivity does not change the nature of a
faculty, but it hinders its normal operation. In the case of passivity
hindering the memory, the person will be found looking outside himself
for every possible "aid to memory," until he becomes a veritable slave
to note book, and helps, which fail at a critical moment. With this is
also passivity of the imagination, which places the imagination outside
personal control, and at the mercy of evil spirits who flash to it what
they please. One danger is to take these visions, and call them "imaginations." The passive state can be produced without crystal gazing,note 4i.e., if a person gazes at any object for a prolonged period the natural vision is dulled, and the deceiving spirits can then
present anything to the mind.
In
pure inactivity of the mind, the mind can be used at the will of the
person, but in evil passivity of the mind, the person is helpless, and
he "can't think!" He feels as if his mind were bound, and held by an
iron band, or by a weight or pressure on his head.

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My 4 blogs are a mixture. They touch on Christianity,Photography,Sport,Bird Watching,travel within Australia,Diverse commentary on diverse subjects.They have a 3 fold aim. 1. To entertain 2. To educate 3.To share my faith in Jesus Christ.
They are designed to uplift not to criticise. They will always be promoting Forgiveness and Christian Love.I welcome people to contact to discuss through emails and comments.Please read "about this blog" in the index.